Tuesday, January 06, 2009

A Tec-9 in the Face

"For sure, there's not a doubt in my mind, my wife and I would be dead if I didn't do what I did," said property owner Billy Jackson. Mr. Jackson and his wife were in West Louisville Kentucky last Summer sprucing up one of their properties between tenants.

Mr. Jackson, a prior Navy veteran and concealed carrier had his handgun along for the ride. When working on his properties, he usually unholstered his weapon and placed it on the mantle. This afternoon, he had it in his waist band. When he heard a loud knock at the door, he went to answer it.

"When I looked him in the eye, I knew I was going to die...... I figured I was going to die and they were going to die, too," said Jackson. Mr, Jackson bent over clutching his chest in an apparent heart attack. The armed intruder cold cocked Mr. Jackson on the head, but Jackson came up shooting. He shot the first armed assailant in the side, then fired a quick round into the second criminal. Then he gave the masked man with the Tec-9 another round as the second thug staggered against the wall. As the first man fell, Jackson placed another round into the thug against the wall. The criminal with the Tec-9 managed to get out the door, and Mr. Jackson fired another seven rounds of .40 S&W after him.

With his wife in hysterics, Mr. Jackson called 911 and requested police. Believing the threat was removed, he placed his empty pistol on the mantelpiece. The criminal who brandished the Tec-9 managed to get to the back yard, where he died. His partner in crime died against the wall where he fell. Earl Springer and Dazmond Turner, both 19 years old, were dead. They were dead not because they were disadvantaged youths, but because they made the choice to commit a crime. That, and they chose the wrong victim.

Mr. Jackson's pistol was taken into evidence for ballistics testing. He and his wife were questioned separately for approximately two hours, and released. No charges were filed in this obvious case of self defense. "All I saw was two people that were going to kill my wife and I," says Jackson. "All I can say is I'm very sorry, I'm not a mean person, and I never intended to hurt anyone...... It will change my life forever, my life will never be the same."

Dazmond Turner's family quickly came to his defense, stating that it was shocking, unbelievable, that he would do such a thing. "It's just something that he wouldn't do and it's been eating at me all night long. It's like, no, that's not Daz," said Stephanie Roach, Turner's great aunt. "I don't know if he was forced into doing it, but that is not my nephew." She went on to reveal that Turner used to be a basketball player for Valley High School. He was struggling towards obtaining his GED and was supposedly preparing to support his baby due to be born soon. Turner's family in Kentucky thought he had traveled to Florida to see his mother and sister. "Now they on their way to bury him," Ms. Roach said.

"I don't feel too good," says Billy Jackson. "I'm, you know, I'm real nervous, real nervous inside, because that's something that doesn't happen every day. For sure, there's not a doubt in my mind, my wife and I would be dead if I didn't do what I did, and I would do the same thing all over again. I really feel bad for the two men that are deceased, but I really would feel bad if my wife was dead........ It's tough when a person seventy years old can not go to a house and make it pretty to rent to someone in the West end. It's just our society is going to the dogs, and the only way it can change is if the people there change it. The only thing that we can learn is it can happen to any of us, at any time, and there is nothing you can do if you don't react quickly and have something to defend yourself with."

Amen, and good riddance. I've heard the sob story about how Mr. Armed Criminal was a good boy, athlete, turning his life around, whatever all too many times. When you participate in something like that and are rewarded with death when the intended victim exercises their rights to self-defense, I have no remorse and no pity for you. Your life became forfeit the instant you threatened to take an innocent person's.

I have only two causes for remorse in this case: First, that another law-abiding citizen has to live with having killed like that, but it sounds like Mr. Jackson will be just fine. His words make it clear that he made a choice not to protect his own life, but to protect that of his wife. That's a decision I think most people can live with. My second cause for remorse is the lamentable damage incurred on Mr. Jackson's property. The report sounds like their weren't any bullet holes from stray shots, but blood stains are a royal pain to get out.

All in all, another couple of violent thugs bought the farm thanks to a law-abiding citizen who was ready, willing, and able to protect what was dear to him. I say that's a good outcome to this event.

That news story really shows me how biased that station is against guns as self defense - it takes 30 seconds before they even use the phrase, and instead of interviewing the homeowner, they go to the mother of one of the dead home invaders. It strikes me as anti-gun in tone. I would expect different from a Tennessee news station.

i linked to this old boy's interview yesterday, too, xavier; i usually don't because i just can't stand the tone of the "reporting", but his quiet, heartfelt monologue was different...while it's not a good idea to give interviews after such a thing, he did right well...this was my comment after watching it:

there but for the Grace of God go i...the nature of my business for thirty years gave me a better than even chance of facing the same situation that this gentle man did...i am thankful every day that i did not. but if i had, or if i ever do, i could only ask and hope that i handle it and deal with it as well as he did. may God have mercy on his conscience, on the souls of the two dead men, and on the hearts of their loved ones.

According to the account, "Mr, Jackson bent over clutching his chest in an apparent heart attack. The armed intruder cold cocked Mr. Jackson on the head, but Jackson came up shooting..."

One of the pieces of filth hit him in the head when he thought he was clutching his chest with a heart attack. There was no compassion in either of these thugs.

As a friend of mine in this area (an NRA Certified Firearms Instructor) advises, "Never say you're glad the SOB is dead" because the thugs' family might sue based on your expressed prejudice. I'd say he said the right thing. Since, however, I didn't shoot them I can express my opinion that I'm glad they're dead because otherwise they would have killed someone else eventually.

I too get extremely tired of the sob stories about how the deceased criminal was such a good person, getting ready to be a daddy, turning his life around, etc etc. Yeah, right.

That's why he was trying to rob this man and his wife and ended up dead.

I hope the gentleman who was forced to shoot in defense of his wife and himself will remember that not only did he save them, he doubtless saved other lives, because had these thugs been successful there, they would have gone on to other crimes.

Further, the thugs would not have turned into good upstanding citizens overnight. Sooner or later, they'd have ended up dead or in prison, after causing who knows how much damage to other innocent people in the meantime.

I find a lot of these comments distasteful and ugly. On the basis of the few facts reported, you can certainly be sympathetic to the shooter in this case, and you can certainly approve of the use of arms in self-defense as a general right. But, even assuming the guilt of the dead parties here, it goes far beyond self-defense to gloat over their being killed.

Two teenagers were shot to death - likely with justification - by a desperate and frightened elderly man who himself could have been killed. Your reaction? You want the brass back. You're sorry . . . for the damage to the hall rug.

Very funny. You certainly give the gun community a good name. The important thing, of course, is not to understand or accept the reasonsfor violent action in the last extreme, but to have something funny to say over a black kid's dead body. I guess they really "made his day", didn't they? I guess those punks don't "feel lucky" now, do they? Anybody who tries that again is going to "Die Harder, With a Vengeance". Keep it up . . . it's hilarious, and so civilized.

So is your eagerness to stereotype two young, dead people on the basis of one bad act. They're not just criminals, not even just violent criminals . . . for some reason that's not enough for you. On the basis of a two-minute TV news story, broadcast before the investigation was even over, you've decided that these two "forfeited their lives", are undeserving of remorse or pity, are "bad rubbish", "pieces of shit", "rodents", and "filth", that their deaths are a "good outcome" and a "good riddance".

You also know with a certainty that they would otherwise have killed someone else, and that they would have repeatedly gone to prison. You can also read minds: you know that these "punks" were motivated by the fact that the man's skin was "a shade lighter than asphalt", that they "think the world owes them something", and that they both completely lacked all compassion (including the unarmed one who, apparently, never said or did anything except tag along). Apparently you have absolute knowledge that no criminal ever reforms, that no 19-year-old punks ever straighten out, that every armed robber is a killer in waiting (or . . . is it just the ones whose skins are closer in color to asphalt?).

But, even armed with all this amazing insight, you're worried that a shooter could be charged with "prejudice" - I can't imagine why.

It's a commonplace among advocates of armed self-defense that those who adopt that stance take on a great responsibility, and can be relied on to exercise it with wisdom. Luckily, most do. The shooter in this case acted decisively, yet shows great compassion and humility after the fact. But he is cheered on by the likes of the commenters on this thread - childish, bloodthirsty, remorseless (by your own gloating description), laughing at a deadly tragedy, freely stereotyping total strangers in the most vicious and prejudiced ways, celebrating a fatal shooting.

Some of you at least are concealed carriers. What you tell the world is that these are the attitudes you carry along with your guns - these are the beliefs and expectations that will guide you if you face a decision whether to shoot. If every gun owner were of the mindset of the man in this incident, I suspect many people would feel secure and reassured. But - judging by the comments in this thread (and the many others just like it on any gun blog) - the large majority would seem to be nasty, coldhearted, eager to prove their righteousness or just feel the thrill of shooting another person to death, and more than subtly bigoted in their choice of targets.

Am I wrong? Perhaps. But your behavior demonstrates, if anything, the opposite. The only way to feel at all reassured about the gun community is to hope and assume that most of its members don't really mean what they say - that their childish posturing is just that; that they aren't reckless enough or at least don't have the nerve to be as quick on the draw as they pretend; that the apparent vast imbalance between mature and serious advocates of responsible gun ownership and belligerent paranoids with a chip on their shoulder is somehow just a (repeated, consistent, and pervasive) coincidence. And maybe that's all true, but there's no reason to think so, given the way gun advocates choose to present themselves and their own moral decisionmaking in almost any public forum.

I agree with everyone here who said this gentleman saved lives by taking these two animals out. These two thugs WOULD have ended up killing someone - if they haven't already. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if that Tec-9 is tied to other crimes.

And I'm sure this will make me sound like a cold-hearted b****, but oh well, guess I am heh heh. One of them was about to be a baby daddy at 19, with no high school diploma and most likely no job. At least these two won't be fathering any more children they'd refuse to raise or support.....

Well, Kevin T. Keith, it's clear which side of the thug hugging aisle YOU fall on.....let me make it clear! The problem with our society, and our tolerance for criminals is that enough people DON'T GLOAT when murderous thugs are gunned down! Did you track that? Not ENOUGH people gloat. We tolerate statements like 'Oh he was a good boy, blah, blah, blah'....you do something moronic like this, YOU should remain an unmourned OBJECT LESSON! Bleeding hearts like yourself can barely conceal your belief that nothing really separates the robber from the victim, except maybe a bad choice.....your sympathy ALWAYS lands firmly on the side of the robber, even as you attempt to conceal it with a post like this. A better man once said “We continue to be exasperated by the view, apparently gaining momentum in certain circles, that armed robbery is okay as long as nobody gets hurt! The proper solution to armed robbery is a dead robber, on the scene.” -Col. Jeff Cooper......

What then follows, logically, from a diatribe like yours, is the conclusion that GUNS are the problem, as these two sociopaths are mere 'victims'....as much asinine logic as the rest.

Kevin wants to express his intolerance of 'child blood thirsty comments about masked sociopaths'.....perhaps if he had less tolerance for those self-same sociopaths than he does tolerance about him, he wouldn't look so foolish while trying to feign moral self-righteousness.

i never did see further mention of the individual who the victim thinks set him up...if it can be proven that he did provide the tip that could have caused the death of two decent old people, and resulted in the self-defense death of the robbers, then he needs to be tried for murder and accessory to armed robbery.

and to be crystal clear, while i hope to never be forced to take another's life, when faced with circumstances similar to these, there would not (and could not) be a second's hesitation; and that is why the very best of many very bad possible outcomes is what occurred here.

oh Kevin...get a grip. ONE bad act? I'd bet that these two do NOT have clean records. Statistics would beg to differ with you, I'm sure. These thugs normally don't start at armed robbery, but lower down on the violent crime scale and work their way up.

Am I'm suppose to feel sorry for two THUGS who WILLINGLY PUT ON MASKS, armed themselves with a piece of shit Tec-9, busted in on two ELDERLY PEOPLE who ARE STILL working while these two able bodied 19 year old fools try to kill them? Are you serious?

That could have been my daughter and I in that house. Yeah, I'm sure I'd look like an easy target just like this elderly man and woman did. However, like this gentleman, I'm a legal gun owner and I would hope to respond in the exact same way. AND I wouldn't have lost a wink of sleep over it either. Not when MY FAMILY is targeted by the animals of our society.

Maybe if people like you stood up once in a while instead of your bleeding heart crap, the criminals wouldn't have such an easy ride, prison wouldn't be a thing of STATURE in their community and they'd learn real quick it's either be a productive citizen or a corpse, but law-abiding Americans are DONE BEING the victims of their violent lifestyle.

Sorry, but this ain't my first rodeo and my sympathy for the thugs of our society is all used up - and has been for years. The thugs of our society can either obey the laws or they can face the business end of a law-abiding citizen's self defense weapon.

I, for one, did not see Kevin Keith hugging any thugs. I think he acknowledges these thugs are dead, and this was an entirely proper and just outcome. There's a difference between being glad this man was able to and did defend himself, and rejoicing that the man had to do it. Between being thankful the blood spilled did not belong to the just man, and dancing in the blood of the thugs.

Decorum is what Mr. Keith is calling for. Just, honorable, noble men, Christian men, do not need to make up pithy comments to commemorate the passing of a thug from this life to what is sadly, probably hell.

Xavier is a Registered Nurse who specialized in complex wound care. He has practiced for over fourteen years in his community. He often provided nursing service in areas where law enforcement refused to enter without back-up. Xavier now works in surgery.
Xavier has been an avid shooter for over 30 years. He strongly supports the 2nd Amendment, opposes gun control of any sort, and carries a weapon 24 hours a day.
Xavier is known on various internet gun forums as XavierBreath. He is married with three children, and is moderated by an apathetic one eyed cat, a goofy Golden Retriever, and a stalwart German Shepherd Dog. One day, he hopes to be deserving of them all.

Domari Nolo

Xavier can still be emailed at
treatmewithbenignneglect@gmail.com
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He might delete it on sight.
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The Five Rules of Concealed Carry
1. Your concealed handgun is for protection of life only.
2. Know exactly when you can use your gun.
3. If you can run away -- RUN!
4. Display your gun, be prepared to go to jail.
5. Don't let your emotions get the best of you.